When Xiaomi began serial deliveries of its first electric vehicle, the SU7, in March this year, it promised to increase annual production volumes to 300,000 vehicles within a few years. These capacities will be divided between two enterprises in Beijing, one of which is already operating, and the company only recently acquired a plot of land for the second for $116 million.
As Bloomberg notes, citing official documents, the plot of land is located in close proximity to an existing Xiaomi enterprise in one of the districts of the Chinese capital. The purpose of the site is mentioned as “the development of industrial production of premium cars and intelligent vehicles with new types of power plants.” The area of the new site is 53 hectares. Since March, Xiaomi has managed to deliver 30,000 electric vehicles, which are produced at a neighboring plant; a second shift was introduced in June, and this will allow it to reach an annual production volume of 100,000 cars by November of this year. In general, each of the two enterprises should produce 150,000 electric vehicles per year. By the end of July, the existing Xiaomi enterprise will be able to produce more than 10,000 machines, but those who want to purchase them now should still expect to wait for seven or eight months. By the end of this year, the company expects to be able to produce 120,000 electric vehicles per year.
Until recently, Xiaomi had to use a license from the BAIC auto concern to produce electric vehicles, and only this month the company issued its own. Vertical integration of business in the production of electric vehicles, as the experience of Tesla and BYD shows, allows one to achieve certain successes compared to competitors, but requires significant capital investments. Xiaomi founder Lei Jun is determined to invest about $10 billion of his own funds in the development of the company’s electric vehicle business over several years. Strictly speaking, the company will be able to use the new site for the future enterprise for 50 years.
By December, Xiaomi expects to increase the number of branded points of sale of electric vehicles from 93 to 220, and the number of service centers will increase from 57 to 135. In total, the company will have 53 logistics centers in 59 cities in China.